


Seeing

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-21 01:31:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’d proclaimed him dead and had hunted his killer.  She needed to see for herself one more time that he was really alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeing

It was late, when Henry had calmed down enough to sleep. Late enough that it was probably a stupid idea to be knocking on Archie’s door. He had to be exhausted, after whatever had happened to him the last few days while everyone thought he was dead.

She had been the one to find his body, or what had looked like his body. She’d felt for his pulse and hadn’t found one. She’d proclaimed him dead and had hunted his killer. She needed to see for herself one more time that he was really alive.

“Emma?” His hair was wet when he opened the door. His skin was faintly pink, as if his shower had been a little too hot.

“I just wanted to… I need to know more about Cora. Not tonight, because its late and everything, but can you come to the station tomorrow?” It made her stomach tighten, to know that Cora was in town. To imagine what she could do. What she had already done.

“I don’t know what help I can be. Mostly she kept me locked up.” He shrugged, not noticing that the shirt he’d been holding closed gaped open. Emma gasped at the dark bruises and shallow cuts that covered the part of his chest she could see.

“What the hell?” She didn’t ask before pulling the fabric back farther. The bruises continued around his sides, the cut marks in lines too straight to be an accident. “What did she do to you?”

“She didn’t.” He did up his buttons, fingers fumbling. With the shirt closed she couldn’t see anything, just as she hadn’t seen anything when he’d come to pick up Pongo and reassure Henry.

That wasn’t quite true. His eyes weren’t quite as shielded now. She could see the emotions there. “That doesn’t look like nothing.”

“She had someone with her. It was his boat, the place they kept me.” He fiddled with the neck of his shirt, as if looking for a tie to knot or more buttons to hide behind.

“Hook. I’ll kill him.” It was a half empty threat; she didn’t want his blood on her hands, though she wouldn’t mind if a little spilled when she punched him. Repeatedly.

“I think there’s been enough of that.” He touched her. Just a touch but it was enough to break the walls that had been holding her up for days. Tears threatened; she had only moments to get away before they fell.

“I have to go.” He had been dead. He could have died for real, locked up on Hook’s damn boat, and she never would have known about the chance to say him. He was Henry’s first friend in his town. Hers too, after Graham.

It took losing him to realize that she might feel more than friendship.

“You don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to run.” His body was black and blue, he had to be in pain, and yet he cradled her against his chest. 

“I had to tell Henry… I had to…” She didn’t dare cling to him, but his body was so warm that she couldn’t pull away when he stroked her hair. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to…”

“I want to.” She looked up, and was greeted by a kiss that was as gentle as a whisper. “This is where I want to be.”


End file.
